The Grange

The Grange, Low Road, Tasburgh

Until the beginning of the 20th century, Tasburgh Grange was known as Malthouse Farm and the house shows three distinct stages of construction. The first, dating from the 1600s if not earlier, was a timber framed farmhouse being the back part furthest from the road with the gable end on to it. Like many other farmhouses in South Norfolk, the chimney stack split the building into two thirds/one third, and although now tiled, the roof would originally have been thatched. It is believed that the northern end furthest from the road once housed the farm dairy.

The second stage was the construction of a wing across the southern gable end parallel to the road to produce an L shaped building. In a plaster panel of the eastern gable of this wing there is a date of 1715. A Conservation Officer from the local authority who carried out an inspection at the time of a major restoration and internal reorganisation in 2011 suggested that the wing might have been a barn but on the 1818 Enclosure Award map both parts are shown coloured red, denoting residential use, as opposed to grey for other buildings. In addition that map shows a long building or barn to the west of the house as well as a roadside building, where the separate dwelling called The Malthouse now stands, and a small cottage in what is now the front garden, although that no longer appeared on the 1840 Tithe Apportionment map. In 1818 a strip of Common land between that cottage and road was awarded to the owner of the farm creating the current southern and eastern boundaries.

The third stage, which is reflected on the large scale OS Map published in 1906, was the addition of the brick built series of rooms with crow stepped gable "wings" fronting the road and masking the two earlier stages behind. The arms of the Ficklin family which appear on the entrance pillars and also on the main house would indicate that the work was carried out for Philip Berny Ficklin, who also owned Tasburgh Hall. This may have been the source of an internal carved panelled door and possibly a carved stone fire surround into which the Ficklin arms have been added. At the same time work was carried out on The Malthouse, evidenced for example by the brickwork, chimney stacks and pediment over a now partly blocked window which match the bricks, chimneys and window pediments on the main house frontage. The long building or barn to the west of the house was also demolished.

There is no record of the owners or occupiers before the 1800s but the 1818 Enclosure Award names Mary Muskett as the owner at the time, and the farm totalled about 35.5 acres stretching along Low Road from Church Hill to the Flordon road. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Muskett family owned land and properties throughout South Norfolk and it is thought likely that the farm would have been let, though who the tenant might have been is unknown. By 1840 ownership had passed to John Muskett, so probably Mary's son, and the Tithe Apportionment Award names Isaac Webster as the tenant. The following year the first national census confirms the occupiers as Isaac Webster, a 40 year old maltster, his brother William, also a maltster, their mother Sarah and Mary Browne, a servant or housemaid. The family were still in residence at the time of the 1851 census, but ten years after that the occupants were Samuel Westgate, a corn merchant, his brother Davie and their sister Kate Westgate.

An examination of the Muskett family tree has identified one possible mother/son link at the right time for a Mary and John. If that identification is the correct one, then Mary was the widow of another John Muskett from Thelveton and her maiden name had been Hart. During the 1700s the family tree shows a number of marriages between the Musketts and the Hart family who owned the Hapton Hall estate. With a direct link via a ford across the river between their lands and Low Road Tasburgh, it seems at least possible that the Harts may also have owned Malthouse Farm at some point which then passed by marriage to the Musketts. John and Mary Muskett had 11 children. Their son John, born in 1777, became Agent to the Duke of Norfolk, and his elder brother, Charles who lived at Fersfield Hall near Diss, was the Duke's Bailiff, appointments which continued into the next generation. John died in 1862 and if he was the correctly identified owner, it might have been shortly after that when the property was acquired by William Gwyn, the owner of Tasburgh Hall, then known as Tasburgh Lodge.

By 1871 Malthouse Farm was occupied by Charles Green, aged 78, a retired farmer apparently living on his own, and who almost certainly was the same Charles Green recorded in the 1841 census as a farmer living at White Horse Cottage with his wife, Mary. In 1880 William Gwyn died and the census return for the following year records the property as Malt Office Farm occupied by Henry Trundle, bailiff in charge, presumably appointed to look after the Tasburgh Hall estate on behalf of the Gwyn executors, but the first large scale OS map issued in 1882 confirms the property as Malthouse Farm. In 1890/91 William Gwyn's trustees sold the Tasburgh Hall estate including Malthouse Farm to Philip Berney Ficklin who in the 1891 census is shown as a 40 year old solicitor living at Tasburgh Hall with his wife.

That census records Malthouse Farm as being occupied by Robert Smith, a farmer, together with his mother, brother and two grandchildren and he was still living there in 1901 when the next census was taken. It can only have been sometime after that therefore, that Philip Berney Ficklin could have carried out the third phase of the building work referred to earlier, presumably for occupation by himself or possibly for some other member of his family. Why he should have left the Hall and moved to The Grange, as it was first known, isn't clear. He isn't referred to in the 1901 census as living at the Hall but that may just have been because he was away with his family at the time but his wife Rita had been sufficiently affected by the death of their youngest son in 1897 to have dedicated the stained glass east window in the Church to his memory and perhaps she could no longer bear living at the Hall so Philip extended and moved to The Grange as a fresh start. To add to the mystery, it is just the arms of the Ficklin family which appear on the house and gate pillars, whereas the arms that are above the gate pillars at the Hall and on other cottages in Low Road show the Ficklin arms halved or impaled, so perhaps those of the Berney Ficklin family. We shall never know the answer, but although Philip didn't die until 1917, it is clear that he didn't remain at The Grange for very long. The 1904 edition of Kelly's Norfolk Directory doesn't refer to him at The Hall or The Grange but in 1905 he obtained two Orders from the Ministry of Agriculture authorising the acquisition of the remainder of the water meadows which he didn't already own from the Fuel Allotment Charity, now part of Tasburgh United Charities, in exchange for other land in the village, thereby protecting the views from The Grange.

However by Kelly's 1908 edition the house is referred to as occupied by Walter Roche who remained there until his death in 1921. Before he retired to Norfolk, Walter Roche had a career in London working as Assistant Secretary of the General Post Office. He and his brother Mark, who lived with him, were also sculptors and artists, and the large north facing window in The Malthouse would have provided ideal lighting for their studio. After Walter's death, Mark continued to live at The Grange for another year or so, but by 1924 Philip's second son, Alexander Tennant Mackintosh Berney Ficklin, had taken up residence. Although Tasburgh Hall had by that time been sold, it seems Alexander Berney Ficklin had inherited the remainder of the Tasburgh Hall estate, including The Grange, following his father's death. He had served with the Royal Norfolk Regiment during WW1, was awarded the MC and rose to the rank of Captain/temporary Major, whilst his elder brother Horatio became a WW2 Major-General and Colonel-in-Chief of the Regiment.

Alexander Berney Ficklin married Rachel and they remained living at The Grange during WW2, when he was officer in charge of Air Raid Precautions for Norwich and Norfolk, work for which he was awarded an OBE in 1945. It was rather ironic therefore that a spy was living almost next door at the bottom of Church Hill and was caught signalling to passing German aircraft. In 1948, after their children had grown up, Alexander and Rachel decided to sell up and move to South Africa. Their property was put up for sale by auction in three lots in May that year by Francis Hornor & Son of Norwich and the London agents Knight Frank and Rutley. Lot 1 comprised the main house and buildings with nearly six acres of grounds and included a gardener's cottage (now part of The Malthouse) and another pair of let cottages on Low Road. Lot 2 was Grange Farm of 64 acres, the house for which is now Forge Cottage, and its barns. As well as the water meadows, the Grange Farm land included the whole of the big central field now belonging to the owners of Hall Farm, which itself was the subject of Lot 3 comprising 153 acres plus cottages and buildings let to Bernard Cross. During Mr Berney Ficklin's time the fields opposite Forge Cottage and The Horseshoes were the site of a poultry farm with a dozen or more large chicken sheds run by Dennis Robinson, who was succeeded by William Ebbs as the tenant of Grange Farm, and during WW2 the water meadows were ploughed up to grow crops in aid of the war effort. After Mr Berney Ficklin died in South Africa, his widow returned to Tasburgh and lived for a while at Old Post Office Cottage, but then went to live with one of her daughters in Australia. Their only son, John Berney Ficklin, had previously gone to live in the USA.

At the auction Lots 1 and 2 were bought by a builder, Mr Gibbons, who lived for a while at Tasburgh Grange. He sold the pair of let cottages, now known as Bramble Cottage and Greenmore Cottage, and then in 1956 he sold the house together with the remainder of Lots 1 and 2 to Julian Crawshay and his wife Ann, who sold off the majority of the farmland. Mr Crawshay was the managing director of the Norwich brewers Youngs, Crawshay and Youngs, whose many pubs included The Countryman, then called The Bird in Hand. After a merger and take over, the Youngs Crawshay pubs came to be owned by Watney Mann, which itself then became part of the publicly quoted Grand Metropolitan Group, of which Mr Crawshay became a director. His mother, Betty Crawshay, lived in Forge Cottage, but after she died in 1972 that cottage was sold as were the adjoining barns which were converted to form Grange Meadow. In due course the gardener's cottage and former studio were also sold and together became the current Malthouse dwelling.

Mr Crawshay died in 2009 and his widow, Ann, moved to another house in the village, with The Grange being acquired by their son, and his wife. Before moving in, they employed the building firm of Harveys of Wreningham to carry out a major programme of restoration and internal reorganisation, which took nearly two years to complete.

Page last updated : 30 Jul 2020
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